The Exchange Student
by XxMissJulietxX
Summary: Frankie decides to try one last time. Her result? Juliet. An english girl who is going to have to spend a lot of time with her eldest son.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey so here's my "The Middle" Fanfiction. Axl is 17 in this. I hope you enjoy it!**

**Chapter 1- Retry**

"So like every year, we have exchange students looking for homes again. This time they will stay with you for at least five months since past participants enjoyed the exchange so much, they wanted to stay longer" Father Greenway said with a sort of proud smile. Yeah, I doubt our japanese exchange student wouldn't've liked to stay for an extra 2 and a half months... I was about to reminisce about the eventful two weeks that went on this time last year but the father's voice interrupts my thoughts. "So please go see Marie if you're interested. God bless you all". and with that I gesture to Mike to get the kids sorted and filed into the car. I'm about to follow them out the door when I'm intercepted by Marie. Oh great. Marie. I just can't stand her, she's always walking around with her perfect children and being the centre of every activity the church does.

"Hey Frankie!" she smiles "Are you going to do the exchange again this year? I heard from Nancy how much you enjoyed it last time".

I plaster on my own smile and put, what I hope is, a disappointed look in my eyes "Sorry Marie, I just don't think we could take care of one for five whole months, it's such a shame"

"Oh don't worry About it really!" she says taking a quick glance down at her clipboard "It really is a shame though, a girl from England is really interested to come over here, but I just haven't been able to find her a family yet... I just guess i'll have to give her some bad news..." she mutters sadly and begins to walk away.

Oh god, that poor girl...maybe we could try again. One last time...

She's English and of the female species so Axl will be happy and I bet Sue will be ecstatic about making an 'English best friend' and Brick... well as long as she's read something, he'll be able to have a few conversations with her.

Oh what the hell.

"Marie!" I shout after her, she turns around with a hopeful look on her face "Put our name down for the English girl".

* * *

"YOU DID WHAT?" They all scream at me in shock.

"What were you thinking Frankie? The last kid was bad enough!" Mike shouts at me.

"Moooom please not this agian" Sue whinges.

"Oh my god couldn't you have just been cool for once and not tried to ruin my life for like five months!" Axl shouts flailing his arms up in the air.

I turn to Brick for his protest but he just shrugs his shoulders and buries his nose in his book again.

"Listen. I didn't want to have another exchange student as much as you guys didn't. But she was the last person on the list and no one wanted her. I felt sorry for her! I'm obviously one of he only people in this family who can show some sort of compassion!" I rant at them, I can't back out now.

"Woah... she? It's a chick. Oh please tell me she's swedish!" Axl says wistfully.

"No" his face drops "Better" his face lights up again "English" an excited glint enters his eye. That's him on my side.

"An english girl?" Sue squeals excitedly "How old is she? Oh please tell me she's my age!" I look apollogetically at her.

"Sorry Sue, she's 17, Axl will have to look after her mostly" I say with hesistance, the poor girl will be mostly in Axl's care while she's at school. I see Axl smile slightly. Oh dear.

"Awww"Sue whines her whole body slouching in disappointment and she looks jealously over to her brother.

"I know sweetie but I'm sure you and her will become great friends! Age is just a number" I say trying to comfort Sue"Now off to bed we need to tidy this house over the weekend she'll be here Sunday evening.

"Sunday evening! That barely gives us anytime to prepare everything, social services need to be notified and forms need to be filled in..."Mike says in a slightly stressed out tone.

"Marie is sorting everything out, now kids off to bed!". They walk out the room and I turn to Mike "I know, i'm sorry but I just felt so sorry for her and I know I should've asked you first but-"

"Frankie!" Mike interrupted my rambling loudly "Don't worry about it, it'll be ok and she's old enough to take care of herself to some extent. Anyway the kids seem to be keen about her. I'm sure everything's going to be fine." This is one of the reasons I love Mike so much, he knows what to say when I need someone to reassure me.

"I didn't like the look Axl had in his eye..."I worry pacing around the foot of the bed nervously.

"Ah, he's just a horny teenage boy, if this girl is as nice as I imagine her to be she won't let Axl 'play' with her and Sue seems keen enough to meet her and Brick... well he's just happy if he has a book and someone to listen to him. But promise me one thing Frankie..." Mike says getting under the sheets of our bed.

"What?" I ask getting in next to him, resting my head on my pillow and staring into his eyes.

"Don't try too hard?"and with that he kisses me on the forehead and turns the lamp off and we're plunged into darkness. As I close my eyes a list of chores that need doing tomorrow is created in my head.

Well, there's no rest for a mother.

**Review please.**


	2. Chapter 2

**hey so it's time to meet Juliet! This took me ages to write, it's not very good but I hope you enjoy it :)**

**Chapter 2- Welcome to America**

Oh what a horrible flight! I was sat next to some disgustingly overweight, middle aged man who went on and on about how his mother is pressuring him to get a job and move out. And behind me, an annoying little kid who whinged and cried and kicked my chair for the whole nine hour flight... I'm jetlagged too which is wonderful. In the UK it's 1am and here it's only 8pm!

But who cares? I'm in America!

As the pilot finishes thanking us for picking British Airways, we are told we can leave so I grab my carry on from the overhead compartment and I say my goodbye to the overweight guy. I smile excitedly at the stewardess as I join the line to leave this god forsaken plane. As I wait, I begin to wonder what the people who are taking me in will be like. The email Marie sent me said that the mother was called Frankie Heck and that her and her husband had 3 children.

As I walk along the corridor that leads the to the international arrivals terminal, I begin to worry. What if they don't like me? What if they decide they don't want me anymore and send me home? These questions and millions more like them rush through my head as I reach the end of the walkthrough. I nervously fix my messy hair and straigthen out my sloppy clothes, I want to make a good first impression.

I finally walk through the exit, into the the International arrivals terminal and start to look around for the family I will be getting to know over the next five months. As I search for them in the busy terminal I hope they didn't forget it was at this time and on this day.

Suddenly though, a sign with my name scrawled on in neat(ish) handwriting comes into my view. It's held bya small, middle aged woman. I walk cautiously towards her, smiling lightly. She hasn't noticed me yet so I come closer.

"Erm... excuse me?" She looks up excitedly at me "Are you Mrs Heck?" I ask a little nervously. She smiles even more widely.

"Oh you must be Juliet! I don't know if you're a hugger but you're getting one!"She says flinging her arms open and wrapping them tightly around me. Well this is reassuring I think to myself and I subconciously smile. Then she pulls back."Now lets go get your bags and then you can meet the family. Alright?" she ask and I nod, my nervousness re-entering my body."Ok then, lets go!" she says entusiastically. I follow as she leads me to the conveyor belt with all the bags on it and we locate mine.

"Great! is that everything?" she asks.

"Yeah"

"Time to meet the family then!" she smiles happily but witha little reluctance in her eyes. Id smile nervously in response. This is the thing i've been dreading since I got my acceptance letter- meeting the kids of the family. It amongdt the excitement and anticipation there was always the worry that I wouldn't get on with them.

But amongst the nervousness and worry, i'm still excited.

"Just a heads ups" Mrs Heck says stopping just before we enter the main airport "My family can be a little... odd at times"Ok..."But don't worry!"she adds hastily "They're really nice" she smiles and I return it.

Ok girl, he're goes nothing.

"They're just in the cafe by the entrance" she says hurriedly tryingly to push our way through the crowds. The masses seem never ending...

We keep pushing our way through until we reach the entrance and see a small, mostly empty, cafe. Mrs Heck pulls me over and I see them. There's a very tall man who looks a little older than Mrs Heck, presumably Mr Heck; a little boy with short, brown hair, reading intently; a teenage girl with braces and long, straight hair who seems to be bickering with an older boy, her brother probably, with curly, dark brown hair.

As we get closer the tall, middle aged man looks up from his newspaper and catches my eye with a little smile and waves at us. The wave grabs the two bickering teenagers attention, they follow their father's gaze and see me also. However the little boy carries on reading his book until his sister nudges him sharply in the ribs.

"Oww!" He whines but the girl quitens him and points to me. When she does that I feel a blush rise to my cheeks from the attention.

"Hey everybody, this is Juliet!" she says excitably, then she turns to me "Juliet, this is my husband Mike" he gestures to the tall, middle aged man "And this here is our youngest, Brick" she says patting the boy with the book on the head "This is our daughter, Sue" she says pointing at the girl who waves hyperly at me with a grin on her face. I smile gently back in return "And finally, this is our oldest, Axl" I look at him and he gives me a nod and I return it with a small smile. "Axl's about the same age as you so he'll be taking you to school. Anyway, let's get you home, you must be hungry and tired" she says grabbing my arm gently and pulls me along until we're out of the airport. She's right, I haven't eaten in 9 hours and have been up since 7am. Iget into the car next to the daughter, Sue and smile at her.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you" I say politely and genuinely. Her deep brown eyes flash to mine and she smiles excitedly.

"Oh my god, it's so nice to meet you too!" She says almost bouncing up and ]down in her seat.

"So how old are you?" I ask trying to make conversation and desperately trying to get Sue to like me.

"I'm 15 at the moment but i'll be 16 after christmas!" she replies, oh yeah Christmas, that's something i'll be spending with the Hecks and my birthday.

"Oh, very exciting" I smile "I'm going to be 17 in February".

"OH wow! so you'll, like, be spending you're birthday with us?" she says with a glint in her eye.

"Yep" I respond quietly and the car falls into silence.

Before I know it we're at their house. The first thing I notice is the huge front garden and that the house seems to be only one story but still big. When I get inside I see how big the rooms are and how they all merge together.

"Please sit down on the couch, i'll go get dinner sorted" I smile and walk over to the settee plopping myself down amongst the soft cushion letting out a tired sigh.

"Tired huh?" I look up and see Mr Heck looking at me smiling. I give him a smile back and laugh breathily.

"Yeah, you could say that..." and he laughs too.

"I'll just take these bags to your room, then you can have your dinner and then we'll let you go to bed alright?" I nod and he walks off. I look around and see an impossibly tidy house, they probably cleaned it just for me coming, bless them. I also notice how i'm now alone in their living room. So I allow myself to close my eyes for a second and let myself relax a little after such a hectic day. I begin to fall asleep when i'm jolted back into conciousness by the feeling of the weight shifting on the settee.I sit up straighta nd look at the person who is sat next to me, staring awkwardly at the turned off TV. It's the older brother.

"Hello" I mumble, rubbing my eyes tiredly, trying to wake up.

"Hey" he mumbles back reaching for the remote to turn on the telly. I open mouth to try to say something but Mrs Heck walks in with four bags in her arms.

"Ok so here's dinner." she says dropping the bags onto the nearby table "Mike! Sue! Brick! Dinner!" I hear two sets of hurried footsteps get closer. Sue and Brick sit down in between myself and grab their bag and pull out a burger each. I see Mr Heck sit himself down in the chair next to his wife who is sat in the chair closest to where I am sat.

Mrs Heck smiles at me eagerly and I carefully pick my own bag, unwrap the burger and take a small bite, chewing it carefully. It tastes really nice...wow, best burger I've ever had!

"Is it ok sweetie?" Mrs Heck asks worriedly, I nod entusiastically, swallowing the food down quickly.

"Oh yes! it's great thank you"

We quickly finish our food in mostly silence, which is very considerate of everyone. I really am way too tired to engage in any conversations tonight. I mean I won't mind answer every last question they throw at me, but only when i'm conscious enough to answer them.

"Do you think I could go to bed, not that I don't like being around you. It's just..." I glance quickly at the clock "It's 3am in England and I got up early this morning".

"Oh of course!" Mrs Heck cried "Axl be a dear and show Juliet the spare room"

"Fine" he mumbles as he gets up of the couch and looks at me expectantly. I quickly scramble to my feet and follow him as he walks off.

"Goodnight" I shout over my shoulder. Axl stops and I nearly bump into him as we reach the end of the corridor.

"Well... here ya go" he says throwing one of his arms out, pointing to the room. I turn to him and smile lightly.

"Thanks" I say. Is it just me? or is this guy really kinda cute? Wait. No. Oh Juliet, you've barely been in this country for 2 hours and you're starting to fancy the boy you'll be spending most of your time with. "Well, g'night" I say turning into my new room.

"Yeah, goodnight" he mumbles walking away. I close my door and change into a pink tank top and black tracksuit bottoms. I'm about to climb into bed when someone knocks on my door. I walk over and open it, stood there is Sue.

"Hey there Sue, what's up?" I smile

"Oh i'm just saying that if you need anything I'm the second door on the left. Ok?" she says ina less mainc way.

"Ok, thanks a lot" I say, voice laced in appreciation "Goodnight"

"Night"

As I climb into the bed I can't help but think about how great the next 5 months will be.

**please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi**

**I'm so sorry but i'm back! :) Now, I'm on a hunt, for a beta reader which is preferably american because as you can probably tell. I'm not. So if you can PM as soon as you can. Enjoy.**

**A Day with Frankie**

I start awake to the sound of a heavy door slamming shut. I stretch out my stiff limbs and crack my eyes open sleepily and momentarily panic. Before I realise where I am and a huge flash of excitement jolts through my body. I can't believe it, I really can't believe it. I'm in America! I've dreamed of coming here since I was a little girl.

Suppressing my excitement, I clamber clumsily out of bed and grab the jacket I was wearing yesterday and put it on, shielding my skin from the sharp, cool air. I open the door quietly even though there's no point since the rattle, the door slamming created, would've woken the dead. I pad along the corridor that leads into the kitchen and see Mrs Heck sitting at the table, biting into a piece of toast using one hand and flicking through a magazine situated on the table itself, with the other. I wince as my foot hits a creaky floorboard, creating a noise that makes her stop her actions and snap her head up to look at me. A look of shock quickly turns into a bright smile and the kindly woman gestures to the seat across from her, mouth still full of toawatching as she chewed quickly and swallowed thickly as she hurried to speak to .

I mumble my good morning and sat down across from her, "What would you like for breakfast? I've got toast, cereal..."She seems to be about to carry on but I interrupt her.

"Toast would be great, thank you very much" I smile timidly, I'm still shy, but that's who i am. It takes me a little while for me really feel comfortable around people. She nods and sets to work putting the bread in the toaster.

"So I thought today you could come with me to the store for groceries and to get you a few things. Since I expect you couldn't bring a lot with you." She says and then the, now toasted, bread pops up. Mrs heck begins to butter it.

"You really don't have to get me anything, letting me live here is more than enough" I say gratefully, she's so kind, taking me in, feeding me and she wants to buy me extra stuff, stuff I really don't need. She clatters the plate in front of me and begins picking up crumpled and dirty clothes and putting them into a washing basket, as I munch down on my toast.

"I'll go get ready" I declare finishing my toast and getting up from the table. I walk down the corridor and into my room to grab my toiletries and a change of clothes.

After, I head back into what I remember the Hecks calling the family room and sit down on the settee. Just thinking to myself about school, the hecks.

My thoughts are interrupted as Mrs Heck walks in, dressed in a coat and holding a set of keys. "Come on then! Lets go!" she exclaims excitedly. Her enthusiasm gets me a little excited too. I stand up and walked out the door, Mrs Heck locking the door behind us and we walk side by side off the porch. We head to the car and I sit in the passenger's seat. "So whereabouts in England are you from?"she asks, trying too hard to be casual. I just smile.

"I'm from Oxford, it's near London" I say looking over to her as she starts the car. We spend most of the time on the way to the shops.

When we get there I get the trolley and meet Mrs Heck at the entrance.

"So. We need to get you a school bag, notebooks, stationery and I need to go and get some food. Then we'll go round to a little café and have a late lunch" She declares, almost to herself, counting things off using her fingers. "Ok, so can you go get your stuff for school? I'll meet you here in a half hour". I nod as she walks off and I stare in awe at the giant supermarket in front of me. I look around desperately until I see a sign saying "Bags"and head towards that aisle. I look around and see a lot a leather, sparkly, inconvenient bags and I wrinkle my nose in disapproval. I wonder along the aisle and catch site of a simple navy and white bag, I quickly grab it and head over to the stationery section.

After buying everything, me insisting to pay for nearly everything I needed, we head to what Mrs Heck said was called Betty's. "The best hot dogs in Indiana" she recited proudly. I smile and sit down in the booth across from her and she orders two hotdogs. When they come I eagerly dig in.

"My god, these are the best I've ever had!" I proclaim excitedly.

"I told you! So are you excited about school tomorrow?" she asks smiling and biting into her own.

"Mmm yes!" I smile swallowing quickly "A bit nervous, but definitely excited"

"Don't be nervous honey!" she says rubbing my hand quickly before pulling back "I will personally make sure Axl takes care of you during classes and if you find him too obnoxious Sue will be around somewhere". I nod, reassured and take my final bite of my lunch. Mrs Heck, having already finished, picks up her hand bag and pays. We leave the café and hop in the car.

Now it's 3pm and Mrs Heck is going to have to pick up Brick in half an hour and Sue and Axl will apparently be home in fifteen minutes. So she hurries me home and drops me off. I shut the door behind me and plop onto the couch with an exasperated sigh, sitting for a few minutes before getting up and wandering around the main area of the house, eventually situating myself on the kitchen table, flicking through a newspaper.

Quite a few minutes must have passed because I'm jolted from the article I was reading by a shriek from a voice I recognise as Sue's followed by the door slamming. I look up flipping the pages of newspaper, seeing (and hearing) Sue give a frustrated sigh and Axl laughing to himself. I glance back down at the newspaper with an amused smile on my face.

"Hey Juliet! How was your day?" Sue asks situating herself across from me.

"It was really good Sue, how was yours?" I ask smiling, shifting myself to listen.

"Ha! You're going to regret saying that" Axl butts in while he eats cereal out of the packet. I look questioningly at him for a brief moment before turning my attention back to Sue.

"Omg, well Carly, who's my bff, told me that Brad, who's my ex bf, told her that Jamie told him that Sarah found out that Tiffany's brother's ex girlfriend's sister is in the same Math class and Rachel whose bff is going out with Chad, Isn't that great?!" She says with an excited shriek at the end.

"Err... I guess..." I respond, confused.

"And I got and an A+ on my history paper!" Sue ends with another scream of delight, jumping up and down in her seat.

"Well that's great Sue!" I say smiling. Sue just jumped up from her and started dancing, lost in her own little care- free world. I turn nervously to Axl, desperately looking for conversation starters that have escaped, like prison in a cell, from my mind. Chickening out I give him a brief, hesitant smile and hastily but casually walk back to my room close the door and banging my head against it's hard wood surface.

"Coward" I mutter to myself. _You're definitely gonna have to talk to him tomorrow _I taunt but shake the thought almost completely out of my mind, it only linger at the back. Haunting me, with unnecessary nerves.

**Hope you enjoyed it! :) And please review! :))) xxx**


End file.
